Side impact events in vehicles have been identified as one of the top priorities for both research and regulation with government requirements continuing to become more stringent. These additional requirements make designs for door trim systems more challenging because the occupants may impact the door trim at the pull cup or grab handle. It is known in vehicles to provide an armrest in a door typically having an integrated pull cup to allow the occupant to pull the door shut. According to the known arrangement, the pull cup, typically composed of a molded plastic, is anchored to the vehicle door inner panel by a variety of structures. In addition to being anchored to the vehicle door inner panel, the pull cup is also solidly connected to the armrest substrate This makes the area surrounding the pull cup or grab handle quite stiff, which may negatively affect occupant injury results.
The known approach to anchoring the door handle and the pull cup to both the vehicle door inner panel provides a good degree of lateral door function to the vehicle occupant while opening and, particularly, closing the door. Accordingly, a reduction in stiffness of the door trim panel in this area may improve side impact performance. However, as in so many areas of vehicle technology, there is room in the art of vehicle interior door design for an alternative configuration to known door handle and pull cup support structures which will allow the translation of horizontal force impacting the vehicle door in the event of an impact to vertical movement which deforms or buckles a portion of the pull cup support structure to thereby prevent or minimize the movement of the armrest and its associated structure vehicle inward into the passenger area.